Water Supply

Sixty People died in a building collapse in Chennai last fortnight. There is much more than the municipal incompetence that needs to be fixed to avoid such tragic incidents. This building was located on Porur lake, a water body that provides services like groundwater recharge and flood management to an otherwise water-starved city. If you care to ask the obvious question how construction was permitted on the wetland, you will get a not-so-obvious response. Wetlands are rarely recorded under municipal land laws, so nobody knows about them.

Growth is back on the agenda, says the government. It is hoping that with pushy announcements foreign and Indian investment will miraculously start pouring in and infrastructure will be the name of the game once again. But this assumption ignores one crucial detail: currently, public-private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure are on the cusp of disaster. The country needs a different strategy to build public services infrastructure.

People living in and around Aurangabad were getting round the clock water supply through underground pipelines at a time when most cities in medieval India relied directly on wells, ponds and rivers. These conduits dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries transported water over long distances through gravitational pull much like the aqueducts of ancient Rome that supplied water to cities, their public baths and fountains.